what can they do but burn?
by aryadrutting
Summary: Tony has been building impossible things since his birth. What's one more miracle? Or humanity and the stones are connected and Thanos should really listen to them.


_Should have gone for the head._

The thing about Thanos is, he has never questioned the sorcerer's decision. How he sacrificed the stone for one insignificant human. He took this at face value, a proof how only he can make the necessary choices. How mankind was weak, just like his daughter have been, like Star Lord have been.

Just another weak human, just another mistake.

(Except, and there is always an exception, he had his doubts, because the Mind Stone has been whispering in his ear for decades about Stark. Taunting him, mocking him, showing him all the ways he is less than this bleeding, dying human.

But at the end, he takes the stone, and the man who haunted him lays in front of him, hurt and defeated.

All those whispers and taunts never mattered.

He won.)

_Should have gone for the head._

He tells to the Asgardian, the only one who is still fighting, who still hasn't given up.

_Thanos snaps his fingers._

* * *

The problem is, for a being who claims to be all seeing, that Thanos is surprisingly blind. Or maybe it's just another aspect of humanity.

Making themselves less in the eyes of the universe.

* * *

Ego leaves Earth knowing, he will soon have another child.

The cancer is just ensuring the boy will find him later.

* * *

Dormammu kills and kills and kills the human, and it doesn't stay dead. It keeps coming back for days, for weeks, for years even, and it just doesn't stop. First it's boring, then it's irritating and it becomes scary, because not matter what they do, they can't get away.

Time is more powerful weapon then they could have imagined.

Because it doesn't matter that they can eat through space itself when they are trapped in a single moment forever.

_The only way to break the cycle if you stop playing._

* * *

Odin looks at his son's lover, and he finds her lacking. He doesn't understand that between her and Sif, why would Thor chose the mortal. She is not trained, she isn't good with magic, and she isn't anything a prince should want in a wife.

Odin doesn't see it, then again he isn't alone in his blindness.

* * *

In the explosion the Tesseract needs something to hold its power, so it latches to the only being capable doing it. The Kree try to keep her contained, try to make her a weapon of their own, make her subdue.

The best soldiers are those who can control their emotion, those who take their rage and use it for their own benefit.

The best weapons don't feel, they obey. They listen and don't think.

They try to make her a weapon who thinks she is a soldier. To manipulate her into something she isn't.

Humans can be good weapons for a long time, you just don't want to meet the soldier they are going to turn.

* * *

Peter Quill holds power itself in his bare hands, and doesn't disintegrate immediately. The Nova Corps think it's his alien blood and the group sharing the burden, why they are still alive.

Only one of those two is true.

* * *

Jane Foster has chaos and reality inside her blood for days. It feels like she is being torn apart from the inside, like she is burning and freezing at the same time, like her bones are turning to dust, and she is terrified.

She wants to shake apart, but she can't do that, not now, not ever. She wants to live and she wants to get to know Thor for real. She wants to discover the universe and understand the stars, and she will do it even if the king of gods tells her otherwise. She will keep clinging to her life with two hands, and hold herself together with the sheer hope for a better future.

They always called her stubborn.

She has never denied them.

_You need to be, when you keep chasing stars and all the things others call crazy. You need to be, to love a man you barely know, for years._

* * *

To mess with the natural order is never good, but he will take it if it means surviving. He will become everything he swore to never be, to protect this universe.

If it means dying again and again from the hands of a demon god, so be it.

If it means playing with things he doesn't understand, with time itself, so be it.

If it comes with the price of his _pride_, his _sanity_, with his very _soul_, **_so be it_**.

He burned all his bridges once, just for a chance to rebuild them later, he is ready to do it again.

Losing forever seems like a small price for the universe.

* * *

The Supreme Intelligence keeps berating her, taunting her, showing her all times she has failed, calling her a weak human.

That's okay, she has been called weak before. She has been looked down before, for something she is. It would have hurt, before remembering. But now?

Now she has her memories back, and the times she has fallen is just a reminder of the times she got up.

* * *

Odin looks down on humanity and thinks: weak.

Dormammu looks through the portal and thinks: little pests.

Ego plants his seed and thinks: primitive beasts.

Thanos sees and thinks: easy prey.

The universe, so full of wonders and miracles watches humans and judges.

And humans, weak, short-lived, humans, look back at the stars with shining eyes and want powerful enough to shook worlds.

Because if they were one thing, humans have always been stubborn. And when the universe wants to take, they plant they feet and look back up saying: _No, you move._

There is a fragile boy who keeps singing up for a war he shouldn't fight.

There is a man building himself a heart.

A woman who was raised a weapon and became human instead.

A man who heals when all he wants is to destroy.

Another who is kind when life only have been cruel to him.

People with power to destroy, and learn to build instead, those who never give up, who love and protect. Who want to make a better future, even if it seems impossible, who fight against all odds, who just keep going.

And...

Stubborn humans who look at the stars when they find them lacking, and tell them.

_We don't have to prove you anything._

* * *

Thanos doesn't realize, that while humans shouldn't survive a moon thrown at them, that while they shouldn't be able to destroy an Infinity Stone and withstand the power of others at the same time, that while they shouldn't be able to fight hand to hand with a Titan, it's not their most terrifying quality.

No, it's the fact that they don't stay down even if they are defeated.

* * *

So there is humanity. Stubborn, loyal, weak humanity.

And there is Tony Stark.

Tony Stark who built himself a heart from scraps. Who built an armor from trash, and escaped his tormentors, leaving behind only fire and blood and Death.

_Merchant of Death, they said, they were right._

There is Tony Stark who made miracles while dying.

_Da Vinci of our time._

Tony Stark who faced the stones and stood his ground. Tony Stark who fought Thanos and draw blood. Tony Stark who has been dreaming of this invasion since he flew through that portal, who watched as half the universe turn to dust.

_I am Iron Man._

(Tony Stark whose name has been echoing in the Titan's mind for decades now, the Mind Stone whispering to him about a man far greater than he will ever be. A man who will defeat him. Tony Stark who destroyed his army, the man he left on the ruins of Titan. He won, his goal reached, he finally _won_.

So why did the stones kept taunting him, still?)

* * *

Governments fall.

Planets mourn.

Thanos dies. And five years passes.

And here is the thing. Earth is both least and the most stable planet in the universe. Because humans? They move on. They move on like it's a chore, like they need to drag themselves to tomorrow, because fuck you. They died and we lived, and we need to live on. For them.

(_Steve Rogers, the man out of time, tries to help._

_This is how you survive, when everyone you have known dies and you don't. This is how you live. You stand right back up, again and again, until you can taste dust and blood and tears. And when you had enough, you keep going on still._)

The universe is jealous. How can these weak, tiny humans live after this? How can they keep building and trying when we had given up long ago?

(_Carol tries too, kicking other other species into living again. Teaching them that you need to stand up again. You need to try. Don't give up now, darling, it will be better with time._

_It won't, but she can't let entire races to go extinct in their grief. Not now when they have already lost so much._)

So why is Earth one of the worst off? Or maybe it's not a bad thing. Maybe it's humans being humans. Because Earth? It isn't suffocating just because of grief. No. Some of those tears are angry. Angry enough to cry and tear apart the world itself if necessary.

And Thanos is dead. And maybe he should be grateful for that, because he died quickly, without suffering and pain. And the remaining ones? They wouldn't have granted him that.

* * *

So there is five years of peace and learning and surviving.

There is Steve Rogers and Carol Darvens saving people.

There is Clint Barton killing people.

There is Natasha and Rhodes and Okoye holding nations together, Rocket and Nebula keeping the peace.

And there is Tony Stark, building everyone a better life.

These are our heroes, says humanity.

And this is us.

A twelve years old girl living alone in an empty house, trying to be grown up. Both of her parents were dusted.

A man, who lost his husband, dragging himself from date to date, trying to live again.

A twenty something woman, rounding up children and taking care of them, even when she barely can take care of herself.

An old man planting trees and flowers and taking in animals. We often forget, we lost half of every living.

There is a group of teenagers, teaching all the little kids to read, because there aren't enough teachers.

There are professors loading up everything to the internet. Every knowledge ever known to man, and teaching online classes. Making YouTube videos.

A band of mothers cleaning up the streets. Volunteers in the hospitals, animal shelters. Accessible spaces are created for everyone. Because maybe some can still hate when the end of the world comes, but most people are kind.

This is how we survive.

This is us.

(_Tony Stark looks at the world where people help unprompted. Where he has a beautiful daughter, he loves with his everything. A world where he isn't flying around in is armor and people are mostly good._

_He never thought his dream would be so bittersweet._)

* * *

Or maybe humans give up. Give in, really. Start rebuilding the ruins, smile, cry and live. They mourn, and take time to recover. But after that? Get up. Live. Repeat.

And maybe the others look at them and think. Heartless. Soulless. Maybe they think humans never loved enough to remember the dead. Instead they forget them, leaving them behind.

They don't see. This is not forgetting.

_This is revenge._

This is looking at death and saying no. This is defying the odds. This is living well in a world where you were cursed to die slowly and alone, because everything you have ever loved have been taken.

_This is a fight._

Waking up every morning. Eating three days a meal. Cleaning and creating. All this, every smile and every laugh, is a battle won. Every food given to those in need, every child born, every kind action, every hug, is a fight.

It's looking Thanos in the eye and telling him, _fuck you_.

It's rising up from the ashes, and screaming with all our lives, with all our breaths, and breaking hearts.

_We are here, still._

And maybe the universe remains silent in it's grief, maybe the stones can only listen and not help. But we make our own future, we grab destiny by its neck and mold it to our imagine. Because revenge is best served cold, and revenge is living well.

_Because heroes aren't born, they are built._

(Tony Stark built a better world on his own ashes. Maybe it's their time to follow his footsteps.)

* * *

So there is humanity and their band of heroes.

And there are the stones. The six singularities that were there since the start of the universe. The six singularities that were destroyed. They wait for someone to channel their power, to bend reality to their own imagine.

But here are two things they do without prompting, without wielding…

_They whisper sweet lies and terrible truths into your ear._

And…

_They listen._

* * *

Thanos has every one of the stones, he spent decades searching for them. Even more time planning how to kill save half of the universe. And maybe he won, maybe the remaining ones cry and scream and mourn. Maybe his plan is a success, and he defeated Earth (the last stand, the most annoying, because they _don't stay down_).

But along the way? He forgot to ask a question.

Not the one the remaining ask every day.

_If he had all this power, why didn't he made things better?_

No-no, the most important one he forgot to ask, to even consider, was this:

_How are the stones and humanity connected?_

Because they are, nobody can deny it, yet nobody seems to see it, not until it's too late.

(Because the Tesseract always comes back to Earth.

Time have been here for a long.

Mind seems to love humans.

Power and Reality doesn't kill them. And...

And the Soul, the Soul is guarded by one.)

* * *

So they circle back. Again and again, like moth to the flame, like starving man seeking food. The stones gravitate towards humanity, reaching for them from the depths of space, claiming them as theirs.

And humanity?

Humanity has been looking up to the stars since they were just apes, barely standing. Following their whispers, reaching up and up again, dreams of magic and miracles calling for them.

* * *

_I am Iron Man._

The Mind Stone whispers, as Thanos clenches the scepter, giving it to the godling.

_I am only human._

Shouts the Tesseract, as Selvig installs the bug.

_Trust my rage._

Burns the Aether, as Jane takes another painful breath.

_We are Groot._

Hears the Power Stone, as the guardians try not to fall to pieces.

_We are in the Endgame now._

Time laughs as it watches them struggle.

_Soul for a soul._

Repeats the Soul, as Gamora falls. They think, they have finally found it, the ultimate sacrifice. Everything you hold dear for everything you have ever wanted.

_A Soul for a soul. Everything for everything._

It's a fitting price.

(It takes another five years and a different stone for them to understand they were wrong.

_It's okay._ Says the woman.

_Vormir shakes.)_

* * *

_Fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five to one_

That's the chance of winning.

_Fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five to one_

The universe cries.

_Leave it._

And humanity. Brave, stubborn, weak humanity says.

_We take it._

And the stones?

_They listen._

* * *

So how do you use a singularity? Something powerful and ancient. Something that existed since the start of the universe?

The answer?

Thanos builds a gauntlet in the fire of a burning star, and washes the metal in the blood of its creator.

(_It takes Tony an afternoon to make it. Metal red and gold just like the suit he uses. He thinks about his kid, the one he lost, and breaths every hope he has into its joints._)

* * *

How do you destroy one?

Thanos sacrificed his arm.

_(Wanda did it with half of her power.)_

* * *

What would you sacrifice?

Thanos takes her hand, the one he held and guided, and shows her down the cliff. He can feel the tears streaming down on his face as he takes the stone.

She was his family.

(_Clint holds her hand, even if he knows, there is no other way. He tried everything to save her, but he has lost. The most important battle in his life and he lost. He takes the stone and screams and curses everything they stand for._

_She was his family._)

* * *

How do you make the perfect weapon?

Thanos takes his daughter and replaces her flesh with metal, wiring her brain until it's his to use, his to twist. It doesn't matter what he does, his daughter is imperfect. Emotions cloud her mind, and she can never meet his expectation.

(_They make a machine capable of feeling, capable of loving. The recipe? A body made of stolen metal, created with the power of a god and held together by the Mind Stone. And he has a soul. A soul he got from two remarkable men and a being who was able to withstand the stone and live._

_He is everything they have ever hoped for and more._)

* * *

How do you get back what's lost?

He can't get them back, and he long since given up to. They didn't listen to him, no matter how he warned them. So he takes upon himself. If he couldn't save them he would save everyone else.

Even if the only option is to kill half of them.

(_They didn't listen to his warnings. Maybe he should be more resentful of that, half of the universe is dead because of it. Maybe he should be destroying everything they have ever stood for._

_But he can't. He won't._

_So he tries to fix it the only way he can. He builds a better future for everyone else._)

* * *

How do you do it?

Take the impossible and make it into reality. Take time and mold it to your imagination. Take what's left and make the most of it.

Thanos needs the stones for that.

All Tony needs is his brain and his heart.

* * *

It's daring, it's mad, and it's their only choice. But he has been waking up and building impossible things since he was thirty-eight. He has been bargaining with death since he was twenty-one. And he has been mad all his life.

In the line of impossible things he has done.

_What's one more miracle._

* * *

It starts like this.

_In the beginning there were six singularities._

Or maybe that's not the start, but a backstory. Maybe it starts with Titan dying, planets burning, life stopping.

_I'm burdened with glorious purpose._

Maybe the start isn't death. Maybe it's a chance to protect.

_There was an idea, called the Avengers Initiative._

Maybe it starts with hope.

_If we can't protect Earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it!_

* * *

Thanos dies, five years passes, people survive.

And at one second the world is grey and lifeless, and the next one there is green everywhere. Birds are flying and...

...people start to form from light and dust, looking disoriented and unchanged. Like the last five years of mourning didn't happen. Like those who remained didn't lose everything in matter of seconds.

Later they will mourn all those lost time together, now they just let happiness to fill them.

* * *

Carol stops, her enemy hanging limp in her hold. She looks around watching the beings appearing left and right, and thinks before she takes off towards Earth.

_What have those idiots done?_

* * *

The Temple has been silent for far too long, and Wong can admit it, he misses Strange. He was an arrogant dick, always complaining about something, and mastering weird magic incredibly fast, but even his attitude is better than this.

So it's not a surprise that it's the noise he notices first.

The sanctum is full of friends long dead, and they don't have time for reunions and tears because there is Strange calling them to fight for Earth one last time.

It's okay, they will celebrate later.

* * *

Okoye just left a meeting when the alarms go off. A second later she is running, because damn it Wakanda can't take any more hit.

But it isn't an intruder she finds in the labs, but a bunch of confused scientists and her princess already gearing up for a battle, portals opening up left and right.

She feels hope for the first time in five years.

* * *

Between all the happy tears and hugging someone glances at the news channel, the avengers compound did blow up, so someone sent drones to investigate.

This is what they see.

Captain America facing Thanos' army singlehandedly.

Thor furious, eyes burning, lightning raining from the skies, like it's water not electricity.

They see the Scarlet Witch keeping their worst nightmare at bay.

They see Carol Darvens destroying the enemy's ship without breaking a sweat.

They see Pepper Potts in an armor fighting side by side of Iron Man.

They see Spider-Man hopping, running, trying to defeat the enemies surrounding him.

There is Ant-Man and the Wasp, and there is professors Hulk, there is the Falcon, and Hawkeye, and the Winter Soldier and Wakanda apparently brought an army, and there are sorcerers everywhere.

After years and years of separation the Avengers stand united, fighting, screaming and keeping Thanos from getting the gauntlet.

They all heard about it, of course they did, it destroyed their lives after all. But this one? It looks different. It's not the golden monstrosity they were told about, that haunted their dreams. This one is red and gold and metal. Man-made, like something Tony Stark would build and oh…

… that's what happened.

The Avengers gave them back what they lost and Thanos is ready to take them away again.

_I am inevitable._

* * *

Tony Stark watches as Strange lifts his finger. There is still a chance for them to win this. He knows what he need to do.

He dives.

* * *

Between meeting this new Gamora and fighting for his life Peter somehow ends up near the Iron bastard who ended up with them on Titan.

He sees him raise his hand, all six stones on his hand, power eating away his flesh like a particularly vicious parasite.

He doesn't think.

* * *

Thor can feel the stones acting up again, and he can see Thanos ready to snap his fingers. He can see the Man of Iron reaching for them.

He can't let that happen.

He already lost so much. His planet, his friends, his family.

_He can't lose anything else._

_He flies._

* * *

_Stark has the stones._

And the man took her parents (but he really didn't, she realized that long ago, she can admit it now), but he also gave her Vision.

She can see his mind; he has a daughter. Tiny, beautiful and so so smart.

She can still feel the crushing pain when she thinks about her parents. She won't let anyone experience that.

_Not on her watch._

* * *

The moment Thanos grabbed the gauntlet, Steve started to run.

Then he sees Tony diving and grabbing the stones. And he thinks.

_No._

No, because he already asked too much. No because he can't take away Earth's best defender, not for his own selfish reasons. He can't take away a little girl's father. He can't do that to Tony, not again.

The last time he faced the Titan, his kid turning into dust in his hands.

_Liar._

He won't leave him, not again.

He will keep his promise. They will face this.

_Together._

* * *

Natasha died a smile on her face, with all the people she loved in her mind, with all the orphanages she built in her soul.

* * *

Okoye held a country, a world, together with sheer willpower, her king's and princess' faces in her heart.

Rhodes kept the peace, when there was nobody else doing the same. He organized what was left of the military, what was left of the police. He took the chaos and made it into order. He took the pieces and put them back together.

Bruce taught the children when the teachers weren't around. Showed them all the beautiful things this world still held.

Steve showed them that there is a future even after they lost everything.

Clint put away all those who were danger to an already dying world.

* * *

And Tony Stark?

Tony Stark has been saving for more than a decade now. Killing terrorists, carrying a nuke, funding all those who suffered from the villain attacks, listening to them when no other would.

Tony Stark who spent the five years after the snap building a world back from ashes, always giving more and more. Fighting for them, living for them.

Tony Stark who after everything, is ready to die for them again.

* * *

There is eight billion people watching the fight.

Eight billion people watching their best defender ready to sacrifice himself one last time.

Eight billion people screaming and shouting and begging.

* * *

And if nothing else, the stones _listen_.

* * *

Strange can feel it, he can feel reality slipping from his hands, he can feel their one chance shatter, and he doesn't understand. He watched fourteen million futures, and this is the one they won.

It should be terrifying, instead it's like a new hope blossoming inside his lungs, ready to grow, ready to fight.

He looks at Tony, standing in the middle of the battlefield hand held high.

He looks at the avengers, the guardians, the wakandians, all of them running, flying towards him.

He opens a portal.

* * *

This is your chance.

Fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five to one

The universe cries.

_Leave it._

Humanity shouts.

_We take it._

This is your sacrifice.

_One soul for a chance. One soul for all._

And humanity, stubborn, loyal humanity plants its feet and says.

_No, you move._

* * *

The stones can feel it.

How can they not when there is eight billion people wishing demanding the same thing?

_Anyone, but him._

Eight billion people screaming at them.

_You took enough already._

* * *

_I am inevitable._

His left hand is burning.

His left hand is burning and it feels like hell.

His left hand is burning and he doesn't care. They can still win this, he just needs to gather the strength for a single snap.

He is Tony fucking Stark he can do this.

_He is Iron Man; he needs to do this._

* * *

There is a hand on his shoulder.

* * *

There is Jane Foster with the Aether in her veins.

_Steve's hand is on his shoulder, and Thor's holding his left._

There is Peter Quill with the Power Stone in his hands.

_Rhodey and Pepper are hugging him._

There is Carol Darvens fighting the Supreme Intelligence.

_Peter and Nebula are holding him on both sides._

There is Wanda destroying the Mind Stone.

_Quill clasping his wrist, Sam and Bucky taking Cap's other hand._

There is Stephen Strange dying again and again, failing again and again.

_Bruce gripping his leg, eyes angry for the first time in five years._

There are eight billion humans demanding the same thing.

_A battlefield full of people, all of them connected, sharing power and pain._

There is Natasha smiling in her death.

* * *

This is your chance.

Fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five to one …

… Fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five …

…to…

…two.

* * *

_I am inevitable._

Tony Stark raises his hand.

_And we…_

There is a battlefield full of people holding hands.

_…are…_

There is eight billion people demanding the same thing.

_…the…_

Natasha smiles up from her grave.

_… Avengers!_

**_He snaps._**

* * *

Maybe this is how the story ends.

_Tony Stark lifting his daughter up with his left. His right hand is in a cast. He is already planning how he will bring Vision back to life._

With the avengers defeating Thanos' army, standing united against him.

_Steve giving back the Soul Stone, coming back with Natasha and Gamora in his embrace. The Stone demands a sacrifice, the Stone was never given back before._

Maybe it ends with a victory.

His army, his vision turning to dust.

_Thor lifting a tiny green snake. A stab wound and twenty minutes of crying later, he finally finds his voice again._

Or maybe it ends with hope.

* * *

"What are you thinking?"

Carol looks up from the drink she hasn't touched, and considers not answering at all. But Nick Fury is a persistent little shit, and the almost thirty years, they haven't seen each other haven't changed that. Still, she lets him wait for a little longer.

"Strange told me you know?"

And wow the man is impatient, but now she is committed to this game of ignorance.

"Told you what?!"

"That Stark wasn't supposed to live. That he should have died sacrificing himself for the rest of the universe." apparently Fury doesn't want to play, so she drops the act takes a sip from her drink before answering. It's something awful but it's nostalgic, just like Earth.

"But he lived..."

"But he lived." Fury nods, with a contemplative look on his face. She frowns.

"Is that a problem?"

He sighs.

"No, I suppose not…" he hesitates, and just for a second it looks like he wants to add more. It's easy to guess what's bothering the former director. Decades ago, when she was new to guarding the universe, the terrans' ability to survive against impossible odds, surprised her too. She knows now, to never underestimate her own species, but Fury is terrified. Always expecting a bigger threat than the one before.

"They won't come." her friend glances at her waiting for an explanation. "The war, the enemy you are waiting for, they won't come." by the way he tilts his head, he doesn't believe her, so she adds. "Terra, Earth, just defeated the biggest threat in the known universe and rewritten an already fix future. Every sane sentient being is afraid of you."

"And the less sane ones?" she shrugs.

"We can deal with those too." he contemplates her answer before nodding, they will take care of the danger as they come. Still there is the question of the surviving man. "You know; I have a theory."

"About future attacks?"

"About Stark." she already had his attention, but his gaze sharpens by several degrees. It looks like the armored scientist is important to him, more so than she imagined. But then again, she watched reality rewrite itself for him to live, she can't be that surprised by this turn of events.

"I have a theory," she repeats, shallows a mouthful of her drink and continues "that it's our special power." she stops him before he can interrupt her, raising her hand. "Every species has one. Some can sing, some fight one of them are particularly good at finding holes in any argument."

"And we can rewrite reality?"

"No. Well yes, but not like that. I was going to say stubbornness."

"Come again?" and she managed to baffle Nick Fury. According to his little team that's quite a feat these days. Well she has a talent.

"I'm saying, that humans don't bend when they should. That we are stubborn enough to shape reality, or sometimes just break it out of pure spite."

There is a moment of silence before Fury bursts out laughing. It takes several seconds before he gives up trying to control it, instead he raises his glass, and between two chuckles says.

"To humanity! May we never stop being persistent little fuckers."

Yeah, Carol can drink to that.


End file.
